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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

HFCS

An interesting post from a blog I've recently been following:http://alifelesssweet.blogspot.com/2010/10/corn-sugars-coming-soon-to-ingredient.html

First of all, the pro-HFCS commercials crack me up. The danger of HFCS lies not in the fact that it is somehow worse for you than sugar (the argument the commercial implies), but that it is a) ridiculously processed from a product that our nation is relying too heavily upon, and b) that it is found EVERYWHERE. In things you would never expect (like bread crumbs).

I am not the healthiest eater in the world, and I am not necessarily trying to cut out HFCS from my life as this blogger is, but I am trying to be more aware of what I eat and I look at ingredient lists more. I like putting my money behind products with short ingredient lists that I might find in a recipe rather than a text book. I don't think all processed ingredients are necessarily evil, and I am a proponent of science improving our lives. But I am not so sure about "better eating through chemistry."

One of my new food obsessions is an oatmeal brand called "Better Oats." They have lots of different styles and flavors of oatmeal (dark chocolate and maple and brown sugar are my two favorites right now) and there ingredient list reads just as you would want in oatmeal: whole grain rolled oats, sugar, flaxseed, natural and artificial flavors (not something I am mega concerned with), guar gum (for texture and thickening according to wikipedia), caramel color. So it is clearly still a manufactured product rather than something you would make in your kitchen, but it seems closer to home (in addition to being DELICIOUS).